Surrounded by the mighty Himalayas, AR Rahman’s “Vande Mataram” being played through speakers and the army marching in unison to salute a national flag fluttering in the wind against a clear blue sky interspersed with fluffy white clouds we watched the national flag being unfurled after a series of Independence day ceremonies – It was an epic moment – the kind that gives goosebumps even when you think about it years later.

From the Mananthavady town of Wayanad, it is roughly a 40 minutes drive to this fall which lies in the boundary between Kerala and Karnataka in Kutta area. There are signboards that should safely get you to the falls through the only couple of diversions that are present.

Vegas has a rhythm of its own, of life, colors and the incessant ringing of cash in the casinos. So after a 4 hour flight from Detroit to Las Vegas, the Spirit Airways flight landed on the runway in the heart of a city that was so brightly illuminated that it is hard for anyone not to notice the charged atmosphere. The travelers, aircraft crew and the pilot erupted in a frenzy of cheers – Yes, that’s what Vegas does to you. It shows you how to party.

To a South Indian, Indo-Pak partition was never a serious topic of discussion. I knew it as a terrible incident in the modern history of independent India blemished with stains of blood and marks of violence. Nothing more,nothing less. Kushwant Singh’s “A train to Pakistan” was the catalyst. I was interested in knowing the stories from that miserable period and I decided to go with Ms. Malhotra’s debut book.The friend from the other corner of the world sent it as a gift through giggles bookshop.